Iran opens its largest glass production plant

Iran has launched a glass fabrication plant described as the country's largest, with President Hassan Rouhani calling on local producers to raise their competitiveness. Sahand Float Company in Tabriz in northwestern Iran will produce 220,000 tonnes of flat glass per year for building, automotive, security and decoration use.

President Rouhani posing with the workers at the glass fabrication plant in Tabriz.

Addressing the inauguration, President Rouhani hailed it as Iran's biggest glass production line, saying it had been established by the private sector which would compete with "advanced countries for quality and price of its products".

Rouhani said efforts must be made to raise domestic production and manufacture goods which could compete in the market.

"Increasing domestic production will create jobs for our youths and generate dignity and grandeur for the Iranian nation," he said.

The president described efforts for production and economic growth as the "jihad in the path of God because they lead to the country's self-sufficiency and dispense with the need for the nation" to seek foreign help.

The president's chief of staff, Mohammad Nahavandian, said the country is internally and externally prepared for an "economic leap and return to growth".

"We are situated at a sensitive historical juncture which could mark a turning point in our contemporary history," he said in a meeting with members of the Tabriz chamber of commerce.

The official touched on the effects of sanctions, saying they have removed the competitive capacity of Iranian products.

Iran foresees an economic growth of 2.5% in the new year as it absorbs the shock of oil price declines and US-led sanctions.

The Middle East's second largest economy rebounded from two years of recession in 2014 and logged a growth of 1.45%, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Inflation has dropped to around 15% from 40% under the former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in what his successor Rouhani has described a miracle.

Iran's economy contracted between 2012 and 2013 at a rate of 6.8% and 1.9% which saw the national currency lose two-thirds of its value.